Conventional paintball guns have a hollow bolt which, when the trigger is pulled to file the gun, is moved from a rear to a forward position in the barrel, in the process selecting and moving forward the lowermost paintball in a magazine above the barrel. In the forward position of the bolt bores opening to its interior are exposed to compressed gas in a cylinder surrounding the bolt, causing the selected paintball to be expelled from the gun. When the trigger is released the bolt is moved back to its rear position, in which the bores are isolated from the cylinder.
A disadvantage of this otherwise simple arrangement is that more gas is used every time the gun is fired than is necessary to expel the selected paintball. Consequently the source of compress gas, usually an air cylinder fitted to the gun housing, has to be replaced quite frequently, which is an expense and inconvenience.
U.S. Pat. No. 5,613,483 seeks to address this problem by attaching a spool valve to the rear of the bolt. A fill and a dump chamber are positioned in the gun housing behind the bolt. In the rear position of the bolt both chambers are filled with compressed gas, but when the bolt moves forward the spool valve isolates the chambers so that only the gas stored in the dump chamber escapes through the hollow bolt to fire the selected paint ball. A drawback of this gun is its complexity and relatively high manufacturing and maintenance costs.
A principal object of the present invention is to provide a simpler solution to the problem addressed by U.S. Pat. No. 5,613,483 allowing conventional paintball guns to have the advantages of the gun of that Patent as a result of a simple modification.